A lot of advertising executives yearn for the good old days when big, bloated agencies could toil away for months (and thousands of dollars) to create something as simple as a tagline. Those days are way behind us.
The New Ad Agency Model requires constant access to cutting-edge talent and the ability to scale up or down to manage costs.
Outsourcing to an integrated marketing agency that understands and adheres to this new model is a must to stay competitive.
A well-tuned support agency should be able to:
Scale Up or Down to Meet the Need
Today, a full-service advertising or integrated marketing agency may have as few as 3 full-time employees on staff. Really! But that doesn’t mean they can’t deliver marketing solutions on scale with bigger agencies. It just means they expand their capabilities only when they need them, which eliminates a lot of overhead and ultimately saves you money. When you swap a 2,000 employee ad agency for one that runs lean and mean, you will still get the expertise you need. You just won’t pay a premium to help the agency retain those experts once your project has ended.
Access the Right Expertise
Once your outsourced agency has a project in hand and they decide to scale up to meet the challenge, getting the right expertise on board will be critical. A New Model Agency will reach out to one of dozens of contract workers they know and trust to find the person best equipped to complete the job. Compare that to an Old Model Agency that would look in-house and use whatever talent is on hand. It’s safe to assume that the most cutting-edge, flexible, and versatile creatives aren’t playing it safe working a desk job. They are more likely maximizing opportunities out on the open market working for multiple clients and constantly expanding their skillset. Contract creatives have to be in touch with the latest trends, techniques and digital solutions because their ability to continue working depends on it.
Deliver Extendable Ideas
After pulling together a highly qualified team, your outsourced agency will quickly deliver solutions that can keep up with your target audiences’ social habits and preferred technologies. Don’t accept anything less than creative ideas that can extend across all communication channels. Your outsourced agency should understand how to create messaging and visuals that work in any format, and be able to explain how they tie together. Here’s where you will also reap the benefits of a team that doesn’t always work together. Your New Model Agency support team will bring a vast array of field-tested experience and of-the-moment experience to the table, which will empower them to challenge status quo thinking and deliver innovative, integrated solutions.
The new agency model is the future of advertising, and businesses are reaping the rewards. So the next time you consider outsourcing a project to a large advertising firm, take a second look at smaller agencies and weight the benefits. You might be surprised how much you can save while still getting powerful results.